AP: White House Releases Bush Military Record

[AZCat]

White House Releases Bush Military Record
By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent

WASHINGTON - The White House, facing election-year questions about President Bush (news - web sites)'s military service, released pay records and other information Tuesday that it said supports Bush's assertion that he fulfilled his duty as a member of the Air National Guard during the Vietnam war.
<snip>
"These documents clearly show that the president fulfilled his duties," McClellan said.
Photocopied payroll records distributed by the White House were not all legible. The White House promised clearer copies later Tuesday afternoon.
<snip>
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=2&u=/ap/20040210/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_military_records_6

Clearly show? Not at all legible? Anyone smell a skunk?


Edit: added link

[wysimdnwyg]

1. link? n/t

[rodbarnett]

16. nt

[maddezmom]

2. clearly show gaps in service n/t

[bookman]

3. 9 Days!

The documents indicate that Bush received credit for nine days of active duty between May 1972 and May 1973, the period that has been cited by Democrats as evidence that Bush shirked his military responsibilities.

I was a reservist. A weekend counted as 4 days. Each AM/PM period counted as one. (A 4 hour week night counted as 1)

So 9 Days does not a year make!

Thanks for the evidence!

[Robb]

4. Are you saying

...he may have gotten a year's credit for as little as 36 hours?

Or, put another way, 0.4% of the year?!?

[xxqqqzme]

22. jeez he was cookin'

books back then.

Move forward 30 years and U have the foundation of squatter's policies.

[benfranklin1776]

5. I was about to ask that very question.

It was a year in time so conservatively, assuming one two day weekend a month there should have been at least 24 ordinary days of service right? If however you say each weekend counts actually as four days of active duty then there should have been 48 days. Also isn't there a two week drill committment in the summer as well? At least my friends in the National Guard Signal Battalion did that basic regimen. I wouldn't think a flight unit's requirements were less stringent than Signal.

[Mithras61]

7. I thought it was one week, but..

I could be wrong. I was regular army, but recall commecials that I thought were "One weekend a month, plus one week per year."

[benfranklin1776]

12. You could be right.

I do recall my friend doing two weeks each summer but requirements vary and its is hard to say what the requirements were for his unit. I shall research. Still the one weekend a month is damning in and of itself. The nine days shows he didn't meet that nor as columnist Richard Cohen points out do the pay stubs establish that he was even there. Cohen admits to not showing up for drills and still being paid. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27178-2004Feb9.html

[mike1963]

13. 2 weeks per year (Okla ANG 1969)

...

[Turbineguy]

31. I was in the Naval Reserve

The requirement was to perform a certain amount of ACDUTRA time, (for this you were paid and got retirement points) however, there were work arounds (my profession was deemed to assist in the defense of the Nation. I had to send in an annual report to show that I was working in my profession. I was also required to take or provide reports of physical exams) and the whole thing was not tightly enforced. I did a couple of correspondence courses, filled in a few reports was promoted to Lt jg and then to Lt without actually doing anything else.

I also did not get paid for doing nothing.

However, had there been something, I certainly could have been called up for active duty and under the terms of my commission would have been required to serve.

This was from 1975 to 1981. Not during the Vietnam war...

So I would think that in addition to his 9 days of service Mr. Bush would have been required to show that he was engaged in some equivalent important task to assist the war effort.

[bookman]

29. Yes, two weeks in addition. n/t

[benfranklin1776]

Thanks much!

So then accepting that each daylight and night period of a 24 hour day counts as a separate active duty day i.e. two active duty days for every one 24 hour period, then, for the two week period in the summer of 72, Junior should have amassed 28 active duty days. Add that to the 48 he should have earned for the weekend drills over the twelve month period May of 72 to May of 73 this means Junior should have had a total of 76 active duty days. He was credited with nine. Wow another huge Bush deficit!

[0rganism]

9. 9 days? He owed 35

Hahaha, thanks for showing everyone the evidence that W's a shirker.

[bookman]

28. What I'm saying is...

...9 "days" may just mean 2 months+

A year would be 48. I got 4 day's pay for serving a full weekend. I got 1 day's pay for showing up from 7-11 pm on a weekday evening.

I also served for two weeks each year. So I suspect the Bush "explanation" is typical Bushit.

[tom_paine]

6. I smell a Soviet-style liefest and cover-up and document forgery

If only Corporate Pravda had brought this up 4 years ago.

But the New Poltical Korrectness didn't allow it. I'm surprised it allows it now...

[Hell Hath No Fury]

8. Show those...

"service" records to the National Guard members over in Iraq and Afghanistan and let's see how impressed they are.

[mac56]

10. Good thing they waited till the ink was dry.

;-)

[joshdawg]

25. Nice Shot!!!

LMAO!! Thanks.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

11. CNN: An absence in Alabama

As Bush's military service re-emerges as an issue, here is what we know—and don't know

"...in May 1972, he headed to Alabama to work for six months on the unsuccessful Senate campaign of family friend Winton Blount, who had resigned as chairman of the U.S. Postal Service to seek the seat. Bush applied to perform "equivalent" service with the Alabama National Guard during the campaign.

But Bush, a self-admitted carouser in his younger days, apparently played some hooky: no official record of his Alabama service has ever surfaced. Because the Alabama Guard did not fly F-102s, Bush accepted "non-flying status" in Montgomery, according to Texas Guard records. And because he was not flying, he elected not to get his annual flight physical, which forced the Guard to bar him from flying.

Bush was told to report to William Turnipseed, an officer in the Montgomery unit. "Had he reported in, I would have had some recall, and I do not," Turnipseed told the Boston Globe four years ago. "If we had had a first lieutenant from Texas, I would have remembered." But by last week Turnipseed's memory had grown cloudy. "I did say in 2000 that I didn't remember seeing him," Turnipseed, now 75, told TIME. "But after I said that, I backed up and realized I didn't even remember if I was on the base in 1972 or not."

Turnipseed said he was so busy checking out new airplanes outside Alabama and training, "I couldn't even follow football." He also noted that he voted for Bush in 2000 and plans to vote for the President again this year...."

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/02/10/timep.awol.tm/

[RobinA]

14. I'm Not Even Sure

pay records would convince me of much. Considering how he skated in thanks to his connections, couldn't he have been, thanks to those same connections, left on the payroll while he did "more important" things? Not sure if this is possible in the military.

[sandboxface]

15. i smell a skunk

[rodbarnett]

17. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=355752&mesg_id=355752

[Newsjock]

18. ABC: "Political activist" gave records to White House

Our local news just carried an ABC report about the whole thing, and at the end there was an amazing fact that I've not seen anywhere else -- and I'm desperately trying to find a link for it now.

The records released today were given to the White House by what ABC described as a "political activist," who claimed to have gotten them from Colorado four years ago.

That skunk is starting to stink pretty bad, huh.

On edit: Oh, here's the source of the "political activist" thing -- today's Boston Globe article:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/02/10/bush_credited_for_guard_drills/

The Globe obtained both of the documents from a political activist who says he acquired them in December 2000 from the Air Reserve Personnel Center in Colorado. The activist, Bob Fertig, is a cofounder of Democrats.com, a website that has no formal affiliation with the Democratic Party.

So, if I read this correctly, ABC has confused the documents the Globe got with the documents the White House released.

[aquart]

19. "Political activist"????????

Well, they ain't talking about Marty Heldt, are they?

[proud patriot]

20. Be sure to rate the article

:hi:

[Rufus T. Firefly]

21. He got paid, so he must've been there!

So, I can have someone clock me in and out at work, and never actually be seen there, and that PROVES I was there? Nope.

And what about the being grounded for not taking a physical, which happened to be right about when they started drug testing?


http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/02/10/elec04.prez.bush.military/index.html

"But under questioning from reporters, McClellan said the records do not specifically show that Bush reported for Guard duty in Alabama, where he spent much of 1972 working on a Senate campaign. And he said the White House has been unable to locate anyone who remembers serving with Bush during that period.

However, McClellan said, "he was paid for the days he served in the Air National Guard. That's why I said that these records clearly document that the president fulfilled his duties."

[TacticalPeek]

23. Or, the Guard overfulfilled it's duty.

Which comes close to some federal statutes.

Attendance records will decide it: Morning Reports, Monthly Rosters, etc.

Now that the DOD can find stuff, look for the unit records from AL.

I'm also curious what 'duty' he performed after he was grounded. No more flying, right? So, he was reading magazines on base over the drill weekend? Where did he do summer camp in 72 and 73? HeeHee.



:evilgrin:

[wryter2000]

27. Hi, Rufus

Love your moniker.

[LiberalFighter]

24. I was at the library today researching City Directories

HOUSTON POLK DIRECTORIES
1962 Geo H W (Barbara P) pres Zapata Off Shore Co --h5525 Briar dr

1963 Geo H W (Barbara P) pres Zapata Off Shore Co --h5525 Briar dr

1964 Geo H W (Barbara P) pres Zapata Off Shore Co --h5525 Briar dr

1965 Geo H W (Barbara P) chairmn of bd Zapata Lining Corp --h5525 Briar dr
1965 Geo H W jr studt r5525 Briar dr

1966 Geo H W (Barbara P) chairmn of bd Zapata Lining Corp --h5525 Briar dr
1966 Geo H W jr studt r5525 Briar dr

1967 Geo (Barbara) US Congressman
1967 Geo H (Barbara P) Chairman of Bd Zapata Lining Corp --h5525 Briar dr
1967 Geo H J Studt R5525 Briar Dr

1968 Geo (Barbara) US Congressman
1968 Geo H W (Barbara P) chairmn of bd Zapata Lining Corp --h5525 Briar dr

1969 Geo (Barbara) US Congressman

1970 Geo (Barbara) US Congressman
1970 Geo W H5320 Beverly Hill St Apt 29A

1971 Geo W Jr h5320 Beverly Hill St Apt 29A

1972 George W h2910 Westheimer Rd Apt 4

1973 ??

1974 ??

1975 ??

MIDLAND POLK DIRECTORIES
1976 Geo W (Bush Oil) r2006 A Harvard
1976 Bush Oil (Geo W Bush) C&K Petroleum Bldg

1977 Geo W (Bush Oil) r2006 A Harvard
1977 Bush Oil (Geo W Bush) 406 C&K Petroleum Bldg

1978 Geo W & Laura W oil producer h1405 W Golf Course Rd

Couldn't find him in Boston MA for his time at Harvard Business School
Couldn't find him in Montgomery AL for his 3 months
Couldn't find him in Denver CO for his punishment
Couldn't find him in Lackland AFB in San Antonio TX

There is a Wm R Turnipseed in the Montgomery Polk Directories for 1974, 1975, 1979 and 1980. Each case the occupation indicated Air Force related and wife's first name of Janice.

[hyphenate]

26. You should check out

Cambridge, Somerville, Medford, Newton and other such towns. Harvard Business School (where I worked for a short time) is actually in Cambridge.

>>>>Couldn't find him in Boston MA for his time at Harvard Business School<<<<<

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[Snazzy]

32. Ap deletes " were not all legible"

1:41 pm version: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAP4MOBIQD.html

2:20 pm version http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGA6B62DIQD.html

This graf now gone:

Photocopied payroll records distributed by the White House were not all legible. The White House promised clearer copies later Tuesday afternoon.

[nwohiodemocrat]

33. WH clarifies: Bush was on a secret mission

He was serving in Colorado making all of those meals that Halliburton has been billing the army for and not deliverying to the troops. We all saw him serve up that plastic turkey!!!

[Moderator]

34. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=355752&mesg_id=355752